Although not the same, but related, I filed a complaint against a particular vendor of ICANN at the end of 2023 for its clear antisemitic statements asking ICANN to terminate its relationship with that vendor. (NOTE: ICANN mistakenly elevated that issue to deal with that vendor's participation in ICANN - which was not part of my complaint and that resulted in an escalation of the issue which is still not resolved today - they are still a vendor) As part of my discussions with ICANN, I expressed my disappointment in the selection of Oman as a meeting location because of their failure to recognize Israel as a sovereign nation and that both the vendor issue and the location was not sending a message to the Jewish participants of ICANN that they are welcome nor are they protected by ICANN's anti-harassment policy. After all, if an ICANN vendor can openly state that he wished "Hitler should have finished the job" and killed all the Jews and it chooses to meet at a location which refuses to acknowledge the existence of Jewish people, then what is the use of having a code of conduct and anti-harassment policy. As you can imagine, I am not happy with this outcome Long story short, on the selection of Oman, ICANN's view is that they cannot take politics into consideration when selecting a venue. Their only considerations are logistics and safety. If the location is safe, and they can handle the ICANN meeting requirements, that is all that is considered. Their political, religious or social views and policies are not taken into consideration. According to ICANN's security assessment, which is fairly exhaustive, Oman is safe and can handle us. I am not making any value judgements on any of this as I clearly have my own opinions....just sharing with you my discussions with ICANN. Happy to discuss further my experience. Sincerely, Jeff [cid:c4b59542-9869-421c-8ee9-5d1f643e8249] ________________________________ From: avri--- via NA-Discuss <na-discuss@icann.org> Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2025 6:19 PM To: Glenn McKnight <mcknight.glenn@gmail.com> Cc: NA Discuss <na-discuss@atlarge-lists.icann.org> Subject: [NA-Discuss] Re: ICANN Meeting in October 2025 hi, I keep mentioning it as a problem, but no one really cares. It is one of those issues that ICANN does not worry about. Decided i had become a broken record speaking of an irrelevant issue. avri On 2025-01-14 14:13, Glenn McKnight via NA-Discuss wrote: Hi . It's interesting that ICANN was actively involved in participating at the recent IGF 2024 in Saudi Arabia and I noticed that ICANN's Annual 2025 meeting will be held in Oman. Is this a current policy trend by ICANN.? Anyone monitoring the human rights issues in these countries See reports https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/middle-east-and-north-africa/middle-east... https://www.hrw.org/middle-east/n-africa/oman https://freedomhouse.org/country/oman/freedom-world/2023 Anyone interested in this issue? Glenn McKnight, MA Virtual School of Internet Governance Chief Information Officer www.virtualsig.org<http://www.virtualsig.org> YOUR SOURCE FOR INTERNET GOVERNANCE EDUCATION Mobile 437-237-4655 ------ NA-Discuss mailing list -- na-discuss@icann.org<mailto:na-discuss@icann.org> To unsubscribe send an email to na-discuss-leave@icann.org<mailto:na-discuss-leave@icann.org> Visit the NARALO online at http://www.naralo.org ------ _______________________________________________ By submitting your personal data, you consent to the processing of your personal data for purposes of subscribing to this mailing list accordance with the ICANN Privacy Policy (https://www.icann.org/privacy/policy) and the website Terms of Service (https://www.icann.org/privacy/tos). You can visit the Mailman link above to change your membership status or configuration, including unsubscribing, setting digest-style delivery or disabling delivery altogether (e.g., for a vacation), and so on.
